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How You Doin'?

It's been a bit crazy around our house. Our contractor is in pretty much every day (including Saturday), working. This varies from mouse-like quiet to distracting din. I am pretty glad we're generally not at home for naptime. Matt and I have been racing to get our fixtures, etc. chosen and ordered. Mom and Dad took the kiddos all day Saturday so Matt and I could spend all day fixture-hunting. And we did! The money end of it kills me. I know it costs to do this sort of thing, but kissing $800 away to tile here and $400 away to bath fixtures there, kills little bits of my good-German-saver soul. I know how hard it is to get that $$ back into savings.

Friday we went to Ben's doctor's appointment. He is getting longer and leaner, which is nice to hear. He's up near 65th percentile for height (was 46 last time) and 80th percentile for weight (was around 90th last time). He hated his shots, but otherwise was not much hindered by the experience. We went to the zoo with my mom afterward which both kids loved … Tabby for the animals, Ben for being outdoors.

Sunday I went for a looong run with some friends from my mom's group. I was the weakest link, which doesn't feel good, but it reminded me to keep upping the ante on my running. I am trying to run a half marathon in April and I need to focus on getting some more distance and some more actual road runs. Time is so limited though that it is hard!

Yesterday Matt got his wisdom teeth out. It was no picnic, but he's through it now and over the worst of the recovery process. I took the day off to hang with him and drive him around and such, so I am a bit behind at work.

And in my free time (which has been scant hours), I am working madly on my freelance project. I'm enjoying the development process all over again and pleased with the product I'm putting out.

Last, but not least, I am going nuts because my Tivo broke (we're pretty sure). The input from the cable box (which shows up fine when going direct to the TV), will no longer show up on the Tivo. If it is broken, this will be the second one we've replaced and I am getting mighty sick of it. A friend mentioned that Direct TV has a protection plan under which they replace for free … and I am now trying to figure out if we can switch off cable (just the TV portion) which we also use for phone and internet and come out too much worse for it. But you know how it is … you've only got so much time to devote to customer service reps and musical hold.

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Link a Little Link a Lot

So … a few links I've gathered from the goodness of the web.

• First things first … drop what you're doing and go read my Cousin Ryan's hilarious (and well-written) accounts of college life with his roommate, Duffman, in Bro and Tell parts 1, 2 and 3 … actually makes me kind of nostalgic for college

on to the normal variety links …

• DIY microwave popcorn in a brown bag
• gotta love the satelleite photography alphabet
• I think I might need one of these cool light switch racks
• interesting sneaky card game designed by a kid from Australia
• terrifying portraits of child beauty queens
• will we all be part Duggar one day?? BoingBoing has the answer
• a long, detailed article about vaccines vs. pseudo science … very good read
• I love the wardrobe in this cool room

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Our Remodel

Well if the past three weeks have taught us anything it's to expect the unexpected. Everyone has been sick. Matt had to head out of town for an entire week and feels like he's going to have to do more of that. And in general, things have been quite a mess. This, combined with some fiscal analysis of the situation, led us to the conclusion that we should hire someone to handle the basement remodel for us. Pretty much anything we saved in DIY would be eaten up in rookie mistakes and also, we'd like this done in a timely manner.

Our neighbors had their basement finished this summer by a sort of one-man-band and we started discussing a plan with him last week … to be started in his next open slot, in January. But on Saturday we received a surprise call … his next slated job had to be pushed back, so he wanted to see if we would take the slot. We would!! He starts … yesterday.

Sunday we met with him to make firm plans and get all our ducks in order. Yesterday, he moved in materials and to our surprise, started framing up some exterior walls. Two are already done. So Matt and I are scrambling to get some fixtures purchased: bathtub (he frames around this) and light boxes for the recessed lighting (he will install these so handy hubby can wire things up after framing is done).

The pricetag freaks me out. I knew what it would be, and we do have the $$ for it, but it hurts. Big time. I like my savings account all big and fat not all trim and svelte. And even after the basement is done, there is still a lot we want to do to the house. It needs painted, probably by next summer (hope they wash windows while they're at it). We also really want to replace our high-traffic area carpet with hardwood floors. It's a light oatmeal kind of color and looks dingy and worn even if we clean it. And then there's the master bath where they thoughtfully installed CARPET. Yea, that's fun with all the moisture in a bathroom.

All that said, I'm glad we decided to stay in our house. I really love it and I want to make it work for us for as long as possible. I think eventually we'll probably want to move on to something a bit bigger, but right now our little cottage is lovely … and getting lovelier.

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Holiday Weekend Recap


What a great weekend! Usually, I do not work on Fridays, but with all the snow, Matt out of town and having to take Ben to the doc’s, etc. I was behind on hours, so my mom watched the kiddos and I went into work. It was one of those days where the stars aligned and I was super-productive. And in the middle of the day, mom and the kiddos showed up because we were having a Halloween Chili cook-off at work. It was a fun event and I look forward to doing it again next year. I did not win … don’t think I got even a single vote. Competition was pretty stiff … and I got a great new recipe for Chicken Chili. Yay.

Saturday everyone got up early for some reason and we had some breakfast and before I blinked we had to rush off to take Tabby to her first dance class. I will not say that it was an unmitigated success. She went AWOL twice and showed up in the parent’s viewing area saying it was time to go. But we sent her back in and I think she ended up enjoying it.

After dance and lunch, sister Kelly and I headed out to do the grocery shopping with Ben while Tabby took her nap and Matt carved pumpkins. Once we got home, we went on a cooking marathon, making bacon squash bites (yum!), Halloween Supper, and pumpkin chocolate chip squares (that turned out more cakey than I think they were intended to be due to a crying baby and a stand-mixer on auto-pilot). Dinner turned out fabulously and so did the pumpkin, which took Matt around 5 hours. Seriously.

After dinner, we drove the kiddos over to visit their sitter and she gave them candy and plied us with wine and cheese. Then it was back to our neighborhood where Ben stayed with my parents and eventually fell asleep and Tabby, Kelly, Matt and I went trick-or-treating. Tabby did very well with her script and only grabbed a huge greedy handful once or twice. She also refused to wear a coat.

The night ended on a total sugar-high heading into a bit of a meltdown, but overall, a very successful Halloween. Sunday … well more on Sunday later.

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Creamy Pumpkin Pasta

from: http://www.momadvice.com

Ingredients
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 pound package of Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage (removed from its casing)
2/3 cup to 2 cups pumpkin puree (depending on your personal taste)
1 can chicken broth
¼ cup half & half
½ cup sour cream (low-fat or fat free)
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp white pepper
1 tsp sage
2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
¼ cup Romano Cheese, shredded
1 pound penne or rotini pasta

Directions
In a large skillet sauté the garlic in the olive oil on medium heat. Add the turkey sausage and cook until no longer pink, breaking the meat up with your spoon as you cook it. Remove turkey sausage and garlic from the skillet. Pour the chicken broth into the skillet and deglaze the pan using a wire whisk, to bring up all of the flavors stuck to the pan. Whisk in the half and half, sour cream, pumpkin, and seasonings. Simmer for ten minutes. Meanwhile, boil the pasta in salted water until al dente. Drain pasta and stir into the pumpkin mixture along with the turkey sausage, simmering for another three minutes or until the sauce thickens and hugs the pasta. Stir in parsley and garnish with Romano and more parsley.